Pandawa/Drunk Rodeo Clown
Introduction Following the release of Dofus 1.20, I am applying some modifications to this guide. Most of it will remain as it originally was, but I felt a few things were worth clarifying after the breadth of changes that came with this major update. The most important thing is that the update did not in any way take away from the support capabilities previously emphasized in this build. In fact, a few slight modifications were made that increase those capabilities. On top of that, our combat capabilities also enjoy a significant boost. Even still, The Drunken Rodeo Clown build, as the name is intended to imply, is more about antics and evasion than direct devastation. This guide is intended generally as one of weaponless combat. This build, I believe, is the closest to the original Pandawa description--Sober, we're team support. Drunk we're bustin' chops. Pandawa followers get their strength from fermented drinks. Their spine is muscled and their shoulders are robust, thus allowing them to carry the equivalent of three or four times their own weight. During fights, Pandawa don't hesitate to lift their allies on their shoulders to protect them or even blow up their enemies to hurt them (or kill them when they are in cracking form). Keep in mind, I do not intend to assert that this build is not for everyone or the optimal way to create a fire based Pandawa. It's how I, after many levels and evolutions, have decided to play my character. A number of people have asked me to write a guide to my build, so here it is. If you are interested in this method of play, inspired by utilizing unique class spells and avoiding the mundane nature of weapon skill combat, give it a try. This guide is based on my own experiences and does not claim to have considered every possible equipment combination; you may find something better; see things I've overlooked. What I will not be including a leveling guide in this, there are plenty of those. This will just be a bit of discussion on spells, gear and strategies. Know Your Role True to its class, the Drunken Rodeo Clown is made with group combat in mind. While in groups, particularly at higher levels, you will be playing an active support role. This is not to say you'll be helpless on your own, as the author of this guide has done some 100+ levels "the hard way". Your support roll consists of * Battlefield manipulation (We love to throw things) * Distraction (Stain and later Spirit Bond to severely disrupt your foes mojo) * Healing ( None can compare to an eni, but having additional healers in a group can't hurt! ) When these skills aren't necessary, you'll be dropping 100-260~ damage with explosive flask (expect an average of 130-150) and have the option of dropping into drunk form to punch, unbewitch or otherwise disable your foe. Skill Point Assignment The Drunken Rodeo clown is a fire based fighter. Raise intelligence to 200 as soon as possible. After 200, do whatever you wish -- I'd suggest more int, vitality or wisdom. You want massive amounts of intelligence. Having a lot of vitality is good, but I'd encourage you to rely primarily on gear for that and scroll as possible. Spells Spell Points That's a lot of spell points, especially considering you'll want level 6 fist and boozer at 101. So this build doesn't find its completion until 11x, unless you can get your hands on some Scrolls of Spells. Determining what order to level what I'll leave to your own personal experience with the build, as your play style may well be different than my own with some experience. And much has changed since I was at the lower levels, so it's hard for me to say what will work and what won't with certainty. Excluded Spells You've no doubt noticed the lack of a weapon skill with this build -- to make the best use of your spell points, you don't use weapons, at least not with a weapon skill. The skill would be not worth its points--since you'll be shifting back and forth from drunk to sober and back -- and that would mean unbewitched weapon skill. Perhaps the most controversial aspect of this build is the fact that it ignores the vulnerability spells -- which are highly sought after for some high level dungeons. Unfortunately, they won't fit into this build until after level 120-130 or so. There are plenty of pandas out there to offer vulnerability services--you're not one of them, not yet anyway. Gear You're not much different from any other pure int character when it comes to gear. As of 1.20, though, you should start looking to add +ra into your setup. Your primary emphasis should be on intelligence, range, possibly heals, and vit. If you're not going to do much healing with wands or cawwot, don't worry about the heals. Later on, with boogey wand, heals don't matter too much as its mid to high end heals are pretty hearty. When you get explosive flask you may be a bit disappointed at first as it has a very variable damage range of 11-25. At one cast per turn, it seems a bit too little bang -- you may want to consider included +damage in your gear to help offset low flask rolls or just skip flask and stay drunk. Phase One (1-38) At low levels, pretty standards stuff--Young Adventurer Set til Prespic Set. Fill in with other +dmg/int/wis gear. Phase Two (38-80) You'll still be in prespic set and reduction gear for leveling -- treechnids, bulbs and moon island being easy fodder. For leveling it's wise to augment prespic with Crackler Boots (with a good reduction roll -- 7 or 8 or so), O-Ring Ami, Plain Crackler Amulet. For "Battle" gear, this author wore Cape Huccino, Lorko Kasko, Plain Crackler Amulet, Ano Neemous Ring, Wabbit Flip-Flops, Red Turtle Belt Phase Three (80-100) As you approach 100, you can shed your prespic set and start looking for gear with stats including int, range, vit AND wisdom. Some of the good RA gear is hard to get or expensive, but worth it--and you're liable to get a very, very long term use out of them. Items to consider: Lullibye, Desire O'Ball Cloak, Elya Wood's Cloak, Event Belt, Smoothitch O'Ball, Feudala Wedding Ring, Feudala Belt, Feudala Getas (or Animal Boots) Phase Four After 100, you'll continue upgrading your gear as you can. It's important to get 9ap -- 1 from now being 100+, 2 from gear. This will allow 3 stains or 3 blazing fists and allow for effective use of your spells. You can do a lot with 9ap, considering everything you use is 2 or 3 ap. At this point, you should know the game and your build well enough to figure to figure out gear yourself. A few favorite items of mine that haven't yet been mentioned are Kabuto, Krutch, Graytess Cape. Weapon Slot Your weapon slot serves two purposes with this build. Use it for stats for yourself and/or a healing tool for allies. At low levels, I suggest Inacleft Stick, upgrading it through the levels til you have Essential Inacleft Stick. This is a great stat item--with a very generous int bonus. The first healing wand you can consider is Larval Wand at 40. Next, Golden Scarabugly Wand (which I myself haven't tested, as it came out after I was leveled well beyond it but have heard good reports). Next is Kouartz Wand at 80. Finally at 105, the holy grail of wanna-be Eniripsa the Boogey Wand. On good rolls, you'll be slinging out over 500 healing for 4ap. This wand also has great stats, including a generous vit boost. Alternatively, when not in a support roll I've found Limbo Wand to be wonderful--range, mp and ap (as well as wis and int). Strategies Here is where it all comes together -- how is this build played? What are its strengths and weaknesses? If you pull it together, this build can be a great deal of fun; especially when playing with a good strategic group. Be warned though, this build doesn't really come together until after level 100, where range, 9ap and spirit bond can all come together. Until then, it playable (now days more than ever!) but will invariably be frustrating at times. Your primary skills will be moving things and your damage may be unimpressive compared to others your level (as will always be the case for your build). That doesn't mean you need to leech -- it's entirely possible to play this build, I have. You can always use the excuse "I'm a strategic build, not a damage build", if it makes you feel better to imply that you're wiser than a simple minded damage character. Early Combat and Support Not much going on here -- you get drunk and hopefully can stay alive long enough to kill things. Eventually you'll gain the ability to grab characters and later still throw them to (or out of) safety. That will be your first support work -- and is pretty straight forward. Middle Combat and Support The real beauty of this build is that every single spell you use frequently (save for perhaps close combat/cawwot) is either 2 or 3ap. It takes a -lot- of ap draining to shut you down. Starting at level 70, you have a sober attack. Like your grab/throw spells, it's only 2 ap. What this means is that for 6ap, you can grab a foe, throw it into flask range and flask it. Great for an enemy that gets too close if you're not in the mood to booze up and fight them up close. Can make for a great escape as well. Keep an eye out for LOS obstructions -- throwing an enemy over obstacles will make it require more mp of them to get to you. With bamboo milk level 5, if you're drunk and taking more damage than you like you can sober up, grab and throw all in one turn -- and with 8ap drop a flask, too. High Level Combat and Support Here's where it gets really fun. You're level 101+, preferably level 105, and dressed to the nines. 9 AP that is. You're a low-ap-cost mover and healer. If you've leveled it, you should be able to do 100+ with flask, averaging 140 or 150 with 200+ crits. But blazing fist will do 140+ damage 3x a turn and you have 25% damage reduction. No bewitchment is safe with the option of stain -- and further aggravating foes you have a Pandawa Master fighting by your side. If you cast stabilization and pandiniuras, you can move around sticky summons freely while dealing damage to the targets that matter. Crowd Control Against strong enemies that require close combat, you can keep them at bay by throwing them. Consider how much more killable this makes Trools, Firefoux, kanigrou, et cetera. In group combat, this can help protect your team from directly facing too many foes at once. Your Pandawasta Summon is another great crowd control tool--up to 4 foes, stuck with nowhere to go, ripe for the beating. If you're with boogey, you can heal him right back up too. Softening Enemies with strong buffs can be shut down. Whether it's troolish absorption or Firefoux 1000hp, with a 9ap set more often than not it'll only take you 1-2 turns to unbewitch. In the mean time, the other effects of level 5 stain can prove most desirable in combat. All the while, your damage s being reduced by 25%. Alternatively, coupled with level 5 Karzam stain's crits can come quickly and devastatingly. If you finish staining and don't want to stick around, you can sober up and toss them aside. Of course, if you'd previously cast stabilization you can just walk away. Team Antics Spirit Bond is a key aspect of your tool set. He's a dodge locking machine with 300 agility. There are few things that can dodge him effectively and virtually nothing that can if there's an eni around to give him ap. When alone and killing enemies, there are a few great ways to use him effectively. If there are multiple enemies, you can throw them to the Pandawa Master so he can hold them all in place allowing you to flask them all at once from a safe distance or just go in blazing fisting. This strategy is especially useful against close combat foes. Wielding a boogey wand, you'll have no trouble keeping Spirit Bond alive while he tanks these foes. Though time/efficiency, you're usually better off letting them chase you while you stay out of their movement range. Ranged blazing fist opened up a whole new world of combat, in that regard. If you squeeze a +summon into your gear, 2 spirit bonds will essentially bring 1/50 fail rate spells to 1/2 fail rate. At this point, most enemies in the game fail excessively. For enemies (such as other plays) with the ability to release to escape, save your spirit bond until you get relatively close. Summon spirit bond right next to the foe, then press up against spirit bond. Now, they can't knockback to escape and you can move in and out of line of sight each turn, fists blazing. Other considerations Mobility As of 1.20, you have more mp drunk than sober with pandiniuras--there is only a one turn break between recasts. This allows you to move around the map even more effectively than usual while enjoying reduced damage. Alternatively, you can mp buff spirit bond to send the Pandawa Master ahead into the battle. Damage - drunk or sober? Against a single foe, 3x blazing fist will always do more damage than 1x flask and will leave you to take reduced damage. It also puts stain and pandiniuras at your disposal. Now that blazing fist is ranged, drunk combat no longer means you have to be tanking to deal damage. When not in a support capacity, I am very seldom sober and have personally elected not to level explosive flask at this time. Field Manipulation--be mindful One thing holds true for all levels--playing with the same group of people over time makes a great deal of difference. They know what you are capable of and you learn when they may want to be moved, when they may not, et cetera. When in doubt, ask; it's good to check before throwing if you're not sure -- people can get really annoyed, really fast when you're messing with the setup of the stage in a manner not to their liking. It may not be obvious at first, but your ability to manipulate the location of allies and foes alike has the potential to both save and ruin a fight. Weapon Based Combat I've made it clear that this build is intentionally aimed away from weapon based combat and more antics than power. That said, it's only fair that I mention the fact that int pandas -can- be powerful weapon based fighters if that's more your style. I experimented with it, but ultimately didn't have a taste for the repetition of weapon based combat. Form over function. I like playing better than scoring big numbers. If you do wish to go big damage, wands are the best choice for an Int Pandawa. Their stats naturally fit your build as do their requirements. Their range is similar to flask and they well fit a mid-range fighting style. All sorts of combos are possible with 8ap and 4ap wands -- grab/throw/wand, wand/wand, wand/flask. At 105, Hairy Wand is tops--8ap can wand/wand/flask, 9ap can wand 3x -- and with Spirit Bond to hold them in place, they're in trouble. The catch is, to use Pandiniuras, recast Spirit Bond, Stain, or go drunk for any other reason you'll forfeit your wand skill when you sober up. This is a big reason I've elected to avoid weapon skills--I hate not having the impulsive freedom to toggle sobriety at my leisure. The recastable weapon skills curb this a bit, but ranged fist also helps assert weapons aren't necessary. Spell points are precious. But wand based combat is definitely an option for the Panda who doesn't wish to be a clown. Notes Bamboo Milk Glitch There is a small glitch with Bamboo milk--it changes your appearance when it is cast and again at the end of your turn. So if you sober up at the beginning of a turn and then cast boozer you'll change appearances and look sober at the end of the turn. You will still be drunk with all the benefits thereof, just won't look it.